, 1887-08-21
Gypsy CUSTOMS.
Some Social Features of Their
Home Life.

openings" Before descending into the
c%ircling, shaded dingle where the camp
fires were already glowing through the
denser shadows, | turned to catch a last
glimpse Of the seaward scene. The spires
Of old Portland own seemed to shoot up
ward like threatening spears above a plain
of FURNISHED shields. That sight and
seeming, coupled with the relic of oriental
actually at my feet, coniured up a world
of speculation and gathered lore about my
gypsy friends. | could not but marvel at
the clear and shining thread leading from
the tawny wanderers of to-day back to,
and beyond, the 1000 COW skins on
which Zoroaster traced his marvelously
pure religion. All along that way where
the havoc of thousands of years has oblit.
Grated races and evolved new ones, this
one mysterious people have refused every
blessing, or curse, OF civilization and to-
day camp here in a witching glen of sweet
Presumpscots vale, just as, had you or |
been there, we could have come upon
them in tn. nightof the ages on the banks
of old lndia's fowerY Nerbudda and mys
tic Tapti.
E Is NOT THE DIFFERENCE
Of a iot or title; nor will there. be until
the end OF time. You will find all that
you could have found there-the same
faces, forms, groupings; the same horses
and dogs the same ever-rcstless, never
satisfied, spirit of change; the same
minds, hearts, ways and tongue. These
hooded tents are precisely as they we're
5000 years ago. saving that the panther
skins with which they covered them then
have pertorce given place to old wooden
blankets. And If after years of patient
loyalty and ceaseless alertness, you could
get into the hearts of this outcast race as
! have done, you would find to-day Just
the same, indeed a greater, reverence for
the tent as the supreme type of the home
and all that enfolds and protects, as when
the following strange bit of Gypsy tent
lore, which | mined from their inmost
condolences, was formulated by some in
spired Gypsy Isaiah:
A Gypsy LEGEND.
One day the Baurie Rom Great Head)E
whose shining tent was the sky, went out
to seek n wild boar for dinner. As no
good being will steal from an open tent,
the Baurie Rom drew not the curtain
about the door Literally mouth). Soon
came along the Baurie Bing (chief evil
spirit, the deviD, who saw the deserted
tent and said with great merriment:
Now the Baurie Rom Is gone / will
destroy his beautiful habitation and leave
him desolate."
Then the Bauric Bling drank up the
rivers, ate all the pomegranates between
the rims of the sky and licked up all the
earth's honey. After f%easting he blew
flame on the world and split the noun.
taIns with his fiery tail. Then he arese
to go, but had swelIed so broad and high
that he could not get out of the tent door
and his horns got fast in the woody tent.
curve Cover the sky). The Baurie Bling
devilst came to help the Baurie Bling
away. just then the Baurie Rom came
back. The ten black devils ran away,
when the Baurie Rom took the Bauric
Bing in his hand as though light as dust
and hurled him beyond the edge of the
sky into n place where he ever burns, but
there never is light. From that day the
Bauric Rom placed a great chief to guard
his tent door.
WITH THE STUDENT OF MEN,
no little interest attaches to this Gypsy
biblical chronicle, particularly men, as has
pStu ItldlGu W mC III luC w CSl luulto ny
aged Africans originally sold into Cuban
slavery, the tribes Of interior Africa re-
tain legends almost identical with it; and
1t has been to me sometimes positively
startling to realize that we have contem.
porary with us in our everyday life an
outcast and comparatively unknown race,
comprising at least one .thirtieth of ouI
entire population, possessing and cherish,
ing, unknown to ~profoundest students
g among us, such concrete and crystaliZed
conception OF the cosmic phenomena
i antedatlng the ages and events recorded
. in our own sacred accepted narrative.
| select this from among very many
STRIKING EXAMPLES OF Gypsy LORE,
of extreme antiquity which it has been
1 my good fortune to personally secure from
them. 1t should be noted, however, thai
while | have gained from Gipsies of var,
: iOus lands numberless detached and spark,
ling treasures of semi sacred mysticism
, from their secret language, which may b.
said to comprise the chief portion oil
. RomanY hterature-if that word car
apply to that which is absolutely
. without written record-yet no Gipsy
can be found who has individual
comprehension of their total extent OF
who permits his every. day life to be il
any way disturbed by their Importance
and portent. In the Gypsy mind, a com
plete vacuum exists where with us is in
stinctive religious reverence, as we com
prehend it. Therefore. love, legend
superstition takes its place. Possessing
no conception of Deity, the Gypsy il
never disturbed by the consciousness of
dread antithesis. His life Is blameles.
towards and among his own and his kind
first, because of the natural protectiv,
instinct, and second, because OF immedi
ate material rewards. With such people
absolutely passive as to spiritual reward
or punishment, and utterly, stolidly indif
terent to, and repellaut OF, your isms o
mine, it can easily be seen how it is na
tural and inevitable that their everyday
life and belongings are replete with trifei
of fancy, thought, fact and necessity
magnifiel by time and association int
loved and cherished significance and i'm
: pOrtance.
OF BIRTH, MARRIAGE N DEATH
3 there are, as with all races, much curiou!
sentiment, lore rite and superstition. NJ
Gypsy woman was ever delivered OF chile